32 lines
1 KiB
Markdown
32 lines
1 KiB
Markdown
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# Invention of Machinery
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## Definition
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The development of machines that facilitate and abridge labour, enabling one
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person to do the work of many. Smith identifies this as the third mechanism
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by which the division of labour increases productive power, and argues that
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the division of labour itself stimulates invention, because workers focused
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on a single operation naturally discover improvements to their specific task.
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## Source Chapter
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Book I, Chapter 1: "Of the Division of Labour"
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## Context
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Presented as the third mechanism. Smith provides the anecdote of the boy who
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automated the valve on a fire engine to free himself for play. He extends the
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argument beyond workers to include machine-makers and philosophers (men of
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speculation), whose own specialised observation enables them to combine
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knowledge from distant fields.
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## Economic Domain
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Production
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## Smith's Original Wording
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"Thirdly, and lastly, everybody must be sensible how much labour is facilitated
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and abridged by the application of proper machinery. It is unnecessary to give
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any example."
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